Welcome Home
by Wonderfoal
Summary: [KakaSaku][oneshot] Sakura is having his baby. Too bad he doesn't know it.


5595  
BS  
Tuesday, September 12, 2006  
Thursday, September 14, 2006

**Disclaimer**:_ Naruto _est la propriété de Masashi Kishimoto, etc.  
**Warnings**: Het. Pregnancy. Angsty-ish?  
**Notes**: I hate KakaSaku, but if this yields my LeeSaku fic from my sister, I will trudge through it.  
**Welcome home, Irish**!

Welcome Home

Sakura rubbed idly at her growing abdomen and wondered if her baby would have her soft, pink hair. It was something she had been thinking of more and more now that her due date was quickly approaching. Gifts for the baby had already started piling up on the coffee table in front of the sofa she had been restricted to for the last month. _"Bed rest,"_ Tsunade had told her in heavy voice. _"Stay off of your feet, or put your baby in danger."_

Sakura couldn't do that, so she had cancelled all of her appointments and work and resigned herself to moping around on her bed, counting down the days until she could cradle her baby in her arms. She had so much work to catch up on once she was able to resume her duties.

_I hope he has my hair,_ she thought to herself while tracing little circles on her belly with her fingertips. _My hair and his daddy's dark eyes . . . He'll be quite the heartbreaker when he gets older._

She smiled at that, imagining her son stealing kisses from Ino's daughter. The blonde had delivered two months ago, a healthy baby girl with her mother's blond hair and blue eyes. Sakura had sat by her side the whole time, squeezing Ino's hand and listening to her friend scream with every push and curse every man ever to draw breath. Sakura had felt faint watching the birth – not for any medical reason, but the knowledge that she would be there in just a few weeks. But the smile on Ino's face as the accoucheuse lifted up the squirming, crying infant and placed it in her arms . . . .

Sakura smiled just to think about it. Her baby kicked under her hand, and she rubbed the spot soothingly. It was so hard to imagine herself pregnant. If someone had told her just a year ago that she would be celebrating her eighteenth birthday lying in bed with her feet propped up on pillows that were completely unrelated to a pedicure, she would have laughed. If someone had told her that she would be a single mother having the child of a man who had no clue he was about to be a father . . . .

Her smile faded at that thought. The father had been away from Konoha for more than five months. She'd just found out she was pregnant when he had been given his mission. She had mulled over her words, trying to find the right thing to say, the right way to explain that their one night of passion had created a new life inside of her. By the time she summoned up her courage – because she knew he deserved to know, but it was such a painful thought to be unwanted – he was already gone.

But he would be home soon. She'd asked Tsunade casually when she was expecting him back. No one knew exactly who had fathered her child, though everyone in the village knew she was expecting. She had been on the receiving end of pitiful looks more times these past few months than any time in her life. They all thought that the father had abandoned her. They were so sure he was just an irresponsible louse who didn't want the child, and didn't want her with the child. No one even suspected that he had no idea what had happened.

It seemed like a long time ago when she had returned from a particularly brutal mission, some of the blood dried on her clothing her own, but most of it not. She was unwounded when she walked through the village gates, having healed her own cuts and broken bones. But she looked like hell and she certainly felt like it, too. She had been just three feet from one of her companions as a large shuriken had severed his head from his body.

All of her medical training and skill had been useless as she turned to help him. He was dead before he ever hit the ground. He wasn't someone she considered a friend – just an acquaintance from Sand who had been teamed with Sakura and another Leaf shinobi. She wished now, as she thought about the snapping sound his vertebrae had made as the shuriken decapitated him, that she hadn't even known his name. They had talked briefly as they walked down the long road between Konoha and the small village which held the scroll they were retrieving. She knew he had a young wife and two children at home, waiting futilely for him to return. He had told her about them in such glowing detail that she half-imagined she could see their faces as they were told the grim news.

The ninja life was full of loss and grief, and his death shouldn't have affected her like it did, but... _That could have been me. That _should _have been me. _I_ was the one who was supposed to be carrying the scroll. If we hadn't switched, it would have been me lying there on the forest floor, thinking about the family I would never see again._

The battle, skirmish really, after his death had been short but intense. She had been stabbed with a katana straight through her middle. Her other companion had taken a kunai straight through his arm. They had won the fight, but only barely, and it was a rather hollow victory. When they arrived back in Konoha, she was dead on her feet and in need of a good drink.

She hadn't really expected to see her old teacher at the bar, but she found herself instantly by his side. He had seen and done more on the battlefield than she ever wanted to even think about. Her sad little brush with death was nothing compared to his experiences, and she found herself reluctant to talk about it.

Sakura never asked why he was there or how much he had had to drink. Her mind was a tangle of thoughts — _His name was Teru, and his wife is Tana – no, Tenshi and his little girl's name is Ryushi and the little boy is Rino. And now they're never going to see their father again, and it's my fault. I was supposed to have the scroll, not him. It was supposed to be my neck severed with that blade, my blood spreading all over the grass. It could have been me. It should have been me. Oh, God, it wasn't me._

That thought made her feel relieved and then guilt followed quickly. Teru had a family at home. If they hadn't switched – If Sakura had been the one carrying the scroll like she was supposed to have been . . . Teru would be home with his family and Sakura would be the one getting her name engraved onto the memorial stone.

She didn't have to close her eyes to feel the warm spray of his blood against her cheek. She could see the scene each time she looked too long against the dark bar wall or the dusty, dirty floor. Sakura couldn't stop her shoulders from shaking, but it wasn't really crying. She leaned into Kakashi's shoulder, focusing only on the thoughts that his hair smelled so good – like some floral shampoo rather than the blood and gore scent of her own hair. She needed to go home and take a long bath and just soak in the water until she could forget ever leaving her apartment in the first place.

Sakura couldn't explain how she had ended up kissing Kakashi. He had offered to walk her home, and she had been too busy trying not to think of her head being sliced off her neck that she wasn't too aware of what was happening. The enemy shinobi only wanted the scroll, and she was the one who should have been carrying it. It should have been her falling to the ground in a bloody arc, her head rolling across the ground before stopping to stare up at him with a lifeless gaze.

Sakura had come so close to death, and now she wanted to feel alive. With one hand she reached forward and cradled the back of his head and with the other she tugged down his mask. His lips beneath hers were soft and warm and positively _alive_. She could taste the alcohol on his tongue as he returned the kiss. His hand settled on the small of her back and pulled her close.

One thing had led to another, and the next morning she woke up in a tangle of sheets, her arms still wrapped around Kakashi's chest. Her head had cleared in the morning, and she couldn't help but be surprised with what had happened. It wasn't as if she regretted it, but Kakashi-_sensei_ was her teacher. She had known him since she was a kid. It just felt _weird_. The feeling only got worse when she spotted a picture of their team beside his bed, her twelve-year-old face smiling happily. Her eyes flickered to Sasuke in the picture, and her mouth pulled into a little frown. He had been gone for so long now . . . their time together as a team felt like another life.

It only took her a minute to realize that Kakashi was awake and watching her. She smiled at him, but he didn't smile back. Her smile melted away, and she untangled herself from the sheets. "I should go," she said tightly. He didn't answer, but he watched her the whole time as she gathered her discarded clothes and dressed. At the door, she looked back at him with a little frown, her eyes flitting over his unmasked face and down to his exposed chest and bare hips. She left without another word.

After that, it had been awkward between them. The weeks between their night together and when he left for his mission had been full of uneasy glances. Their student-teacher relationship had crumbled. She wasn't going to lie to herself and say that she loved him. She did love him, but not in that way. At least not yet. She sighed in exasperation. Whatever difficult feelings had become between them, she would never deny him his child. Whether he wanted to be a father or not, she wasn't going to lie and tell him that this wasn't his child. It was too cruel.

But she had to tell him first – whether he wanted the baby or not. She was not going to announce to everyone that Kakashi was the baby's father when he himself didn't know. The news had to come from her, not some stranger who would just blurt it out the moment he came back to the village. This was a very personal matter, and required the most care and consideration. She wasn't going to let some gossiping old lady ruin it for her.

Sakura was pulled away from her thoughts by the sound of voices outside her door. She curiously shifted on the sofa, and then stood up. Her legs were stiff and her back was sore. She _hated_ bed rest. She was a ninja, and she needed to exercise and to train her skills. She did not need to become a permanent fixture on the sofa. But at least her mind wasn't going to waste. She had read through every book of ninja skills – every medical text, every obscure scroll she could get her hands on. It only made the feeling of restlessness worse, since she wasn't able to practice any of them, but it did give her something else to think about rather than her difficult situation.

With sore feet, she slowly made her way to the door, her left hand pushed against her aching back and her right hand reaching for the door knob. When she was close enough to understand the words, though, her hand fell limply to her side.

"Tsunade said we have to be careful," Hinata said. Sakura frowned, wondering why the Hyuuga girl was doing outside her door at ten in the morning.

"What, why?" Naruto asked. He was so loud she could hear him without even trying. He sounded odd, his voice a little shaky. "Sakura needs to know."

_Know? Know what?_

"Yes, but Sakura is having a baby, and if we upset her . . . ." Dread pooled low in her belly, and her hands suddenly began to shake. Upset her? What were they going to tell her? "The Hokage said that a sudden shock – that suddenly being upset like this could give her trouble with the baby."

Naruto was quiet outside the door, and Sakura clenched her fists until they ached. "What are we going to do? We have to tell her; if we don't someone else will!"

Sakura was almost leaning against the door, her heart beating hard in her chest. Her legs felt like rubber and she didn't see how they were still holding her up. Her fingernails were carving red crescents into her palms.

"I know, but just be careful. We –" Hinata ended in a little squeak when Sakura threw the door open and looked at them with wide eyes.

"What's going on? What happened?" _If they're this worried, it must be bad._

Neither Naruto nor Hinata answered her for several minutes. Hinata averted his eyes and Naruto nervously shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Sakura studied his face, looking for some clue of what they had come to tell her. Naruto wasn't smiling, but neither was he crying. His eyes looked sad, though, the same look he had each time someone mentioned Sasuke. The look of loss . . . someone he was close to died.

"Sakura," Hinata started, her eyes still turned away.

"Just spit it out!" she shouted, her knees shaking. She felt suddenly warm all over and a headache pushed at her temples. She didn't want to be so rude, but she didn't know how much longer she could stand at the door, waiting for the news.

Naruto spoke without any of his usual enthusiasm. "Sakura, it's Kakashi. He's been critically wounded."

Sakura felt like the floor had dropped out beneath her. She had been too warm earlier, but now she was nothing but cold. "Wh-what?" she choked out.

"He was wounded on a mission," Naruto said as if it explained everything.

"Sakura, please go inside. You should sit down," Hinata added.

Sakura leaned against the door, fighting the faint feeling that was threatening to overtake her. Blackness swarmed at the edge of her vision, but she pushed it aside. Logically, she knew that Hinata was right. She wasn't supposed to be on her feet except to walk to the bathroom and to and from her sofa and bed. She had started cramping and bleeding five weeks ago, and Tsunade told her to take it easy. She told Sakura that if she didn't stay in bed, it was very likely she would miscarry. She was supposed to stay calm, not to get upset or very angry. She put her son at risk if she did.

"No, just tell me," she said in a hoarse voice.

"The Hokage doesn't think he'll make it," Hinata said in a very soft voice. "They're operating on him now, but the chances are — Sakura!" Hinata exclaimed and rushed forward as the pink-haired girl fell to her knees.

Sakura grasped at her belly as she fell, in agony from the headache that throbbed through her skull. A sharp pain lanced through her body, starting in her abdomen where her baby was growing inside. _No,_ she thought desperately. _It's too soon! It's too early!_ She passed out with the worried faces of Naruto and Hinata hovering over her. _Kakashi's never going to see his son,_ she thought as everything faded away.

* * *

Sakura woke up to the most extreme pain she had ever felt. She was in a sterile, white hospital room. Several medics scurried around her bed, and Tsunade herself was standing over her, one hand pressed on Sakura's large stomach. "... Stop," she moaned.

Tsunade looked at her, surprised, "You're awake," she said in a relived tone. "Do you remember what happened?" she asked as she pressed against Sakura's stomach again.

Sakura whimpered and tried to move away, but Tsunade held her in place. "I was . . . Naruto came by and . . . . " She suddenly remembered what he had told her about Kakashi. "He told me –" her words died off as another gripping pain squeezed her tightly. Tears pricked at her eyes, but she couldn't tell if they were from the pain or the knowledge that she would not be able to tell Kakashi about their baby.

"I understand," Tsunade said gently.

"What's going on? What happened?" she asked as she squeezed her eyes shut in pain.

She meant Kakashi's health, but Tsunade misinterpreted. "Sakura, you're in labor."

"The baby's coming?" she asked and gripped her hands into the sheets. "When?" She felt terribly stupid. It was obvious that the answer was _now_. She was no expert at childbearing, but she could guess that she had been in labor for quite some time. Another contraction gripped her and she shouted in pain. "It's too soon!" She cried and squirmed against the bed.

Tsunade gripped her arm and shared a look with one of the other medics. "No, the baby should be viable." It was good news, but Tsunade still looked troubled. "It's a good thing you woke up," she said. "If you had remained unconscious, we might have had to do a caesarian."

Sakura thought that would have been a very good thing, if it spared her from the agony she was currently experiencing. One of the medics lifted up her hospital gown, and looked for any changes. Sakura was in too much pain to be self-conscious. "Push with the next contraction, Ms. Haruno," the medic said and she nodded her head vigorously in reply.

Forty-five minutes later, her tiny baby drew its first breath and let out a shrill cry. Sakura laughed in sheer joy, tears rolling slowly down her cheeks. Her grin was wide – stretching across her face – as Tsunade wrapped a fluffy blanket around the baby and settled the bundle in her arms. She cradled the baby to her chest and nuzzled her nose against its tiny face.

Tsunade watched from the side of the bed with a little smile. The other medics were milling around the room, cleaning up the mess from the birth and checking her vital signs. "It's such a surprise," Tsunade told the medic who was standing next to her. "The ultrasound doesn't normally mislead us like this."

Sakura jerked her head up and pulled the baby closer. "What? Is something wrong?" Surely she wouldn't have just given her the baby if he was sick, or something was wrong with him, or –

"She's fine, Sakura," Tsunade said with amusement clearly visible in her eyes.

_She?_ Sakura questioned, and then laughed herself as she looked down at the tiny baby. Her son that she had planned for for the last three months was a little girl. She had a daughter. Kakashi had a daughter. The thought caused her heartbeat to increase, and she raised her head to ask Tsunade about the other ninja, but the last medic had just left, and the room was empty.

Her daughter didn't have her pink hair, nor her father's dark eyes. The baby's eyes were still the dark blue of most newborns, but she could almost see the green tint starting to appear. The small patch of hair on her forehead was snowy white. Once people started looking at her, it wouldn't be any big mystery who the father was. She had already heard people debating about it when she walked down the street or went out to eat. They talked about her as though she couldn't hear them, and she dreaded the same thing happening to her baby. Her _daughter_.

The thought of having a little girl made her smile. She had wanted a girl in the beginning, but when the ultrasound told her it was a little boy, she hadn't been as disappointed as she thought she would be. She was actually looking forward to having a son. With a little giggle, she realized that most of the baby clothes and toys her friends had given her were designed for boys. She tried to imagine her little daughter playing with the stuffed plush frog Naruto had given her, and smiled again.

She couldn't seem to stop smiling, truth be told. She had never felt so happy.

Throughout the day – well, night, really, since her daughter was born just shy of midnight – her friends stopped by with their congratulations. Naruto was one of the first to see her, and he looked very worried and tired when he perched on her bedside.

"You really scared me, Sakura," he said and scratched at his hair. He gave her an uneasy grin and then looked down to the baby. "I thought he would have pink hair," he said and reached out to touch the baby before withdrawing his hand and smiling sheepishly.

"_She_ takes after her father," she said after a moment's hesitation. She wondered if he could fit the pieces together. The idiot probably thought she meant Jiraiya. She scowled at that thought, then brightened. "Would you like to hold her?"

"Wrong on both counts, I guess," he said with a more genuine grin. Her last words seemed to sink in, and he looked worried again. "Are you sure? You don't think I'll drop her?"

Sakura smiled and set the baby in his arms. He held her awkwardly, but she corrected his position, and soon he was staring down at her with an awed expression and a huge grin plastered on his face. There was a spark of life in his eyes that she hadn't seen since Sasuke – No, there was no point going down that road right now. She wanted to be happy.

"What's her name?" he asked and gently rocked her up and down. The scene brought a smile to Sakura's face, but then she frowned when she thought about his question.

"I don't know, " she said frankly. "All of the names I was considering are for boys!" She laughed when she said it, still surprised that she had a daughter and not a son.

"Name her Naruko," Naruto said with a laugh. Sakura scowled and lightly punched his arm. He rubbed at the spot while still laughing, "Ow, Sakura, that hurt!"

He handed her baby back to her and she cradled her tightly to her chest. She needed to know about Kakashi. Their baby had proven to be very successful distraction, but she _needed_ to know. None of the medics had returned to her room, and she had no one to ask. She rocked her baby gently in her arms, and summoned her courage. "Naruto," she said.

"Yeah?"

"What did you hear about Kakashi?" she asked quietly. "You said –"

Naruto shook his head. "I don't know. I can't find – " He shrugged. "I haven't heard anything." The words didn't match the expression on his face, and his voice was just a little too high-pitched for her to think he was being completely honest. He may not have heard anything, but that didn't mean he was ignorant of what was happening. He looked guilty and leaned forward on the bed. "Sakura," he started and then seemed to change his mind. "I'm sorry," he said instead.

"Sorry?"

"For upsetting you so much that you had your baby early. It's my fault," Naruto said.

Sakura wanted to laugh. "It's okay. She's here now, and she's okay." She put her hand over his. "Don't feel bad about it."

Naruto smiled in reply, but he looked like he was still holding back. Finally, he sighed loudly and his shoulders slumped. "Listen, Sakura, her father – "

Sakura immediately sobered. "I don't want to talk about it," she said sharply. She was a little amazed that he brought it up now. He hadn't said a single word about her child's father throughout her entire pregnancy. She should have known it was too good to last. Naruto awkwardly fidgeted, and Sakura felt guilty for snapping at him. "Are you that uncomfortable about it?" she asked. Uncomfortable – she meant disgusted, upset, disappointed.

Naruto chuckled. "No, it just surprised me. I didn't think he was your type?" Sakura could read between the lines: Why wasn't I your type?

She frowned. "He's not. It just sort of . . . happened." She couldn't even explain it to herself, much less Naruto.

"I understand," he said.

Sakura laughed. "Then explain it to me!" she said and leaned against the bed. "I surely don't!" Naruto grinned at her. Sakura enjoyed his broad smile and unconsciously rocked her baby up and down. "Naruto," she said seriously. "He doesn't know. Could you keep it to yourself for now?"

Naruto nodded, serious. She was glad she could trust him. Naruto looked better – more natural around her – but he still couldn't hide that he was uncomfortable. Sakura opened her mouth to make sure he understood that the baby's father was Kakashi and _not_ Jiraiya, but at that moment, Ino appeared at the door, grinning. Naruto slid off the bed and stretched. "I gotta go," he said with a laugh, then reached over and tried to ruffle her daughter's silvery-white hair. "Take care, Kid, Sakura."

Ino didn't even wait for him to leave before squealing and hurrying over to Sakura's side. Her own baby was two months old, and she was amazingly still high on motherhood. Sakura could only half-listen to her friend as she started cooing over the baby and telling her infant daughter about her "cousin" who would play with her when they were older. Sakura was glad that her little girl wouldn't have the same trouble she did making friends – especially if she was unlucky enough to have inherited Sakura's rather large forehead.

With a small smile on her lips as she listened to Ino talk to her baby, Sakura drifted off into a well-deserved sleep.

When Sakura awoke again, it was early morning. She could see the early morning sky outside her window – it was a pale gray littered with pink-orange clouds. She stretched her muscles, pushing her arms over her head. Her shoulders were stiff and even though she had slept for several hours, she was dead tired. With a jolt, she realized that Ino was gone and so was Sakura's baby.

"The nurse took her for an exam on my way in," Kakashi said from her bedside.

Sakura gasped and turned to face him, her face flush with excitement. She was so relieved to see him that tears sprang to her eyes. "Kakashi-_sensei_," she said in a breathless voice. She wiped away her tears, which merely encouraged more of them to fall. "You're okay!"

Kakashi sat in the small plastic chair next to her bed. He looked a little too pale, what she could see of his face between his crooked headband and dark mask. He was wearing a plain turtle neck, but the collar was too loose, and Sakura could see the white bandages peeking out from under the fabric. There was a large bruise next to his right eye, and she could still see a few raw scratches on his hands. He probably felt a lot worse than he looked. "Good morning, Sakura," he said.

She tried to smile, but it was difficult. "Should you be up – out of bed?" she asked. "They said you were . . . critically wounded."

Kakashi studied her intently, but she couldn't guess what he was thinking behind his single dark eye. Several minutes ticked by in awkward, for her at least, silence. Finally, he said, "I heard that you were here, and I was surprised when I found out why." There was something hidden behind his words, but she was too emotionally and physically drained to bother with seeing underneath the underneath.

Sakura blushed. "I wasn't due for four more weeks," she said. She wondered if he would be uncomfortable hearing details from her pregnancy. She wondered if he had seen their baby – if he knew that he had fathered her child. "When I heard that you wouldn't live, that you were hurt . . . " She trailed off, not sure how to explain it. "I was a high-risk case anyway," she said instead. "The shock of it caused me to go early."

Kakashi said nothing, merely started watching her again. She found it unnerving, but didn't want to tell him to leave. She asked instead, "What happened to you?"

Kakashi's smiled, but she could tell that he wasn't really amused. "Confidential, Sakura," he said. He started to say something else, but just then the nurse appeared at the door with the small, blanket-wrapped baby in her arms.

"Someone's hungry," she said with a grin, striding forward to bring Sakura her daughter. She reached up to take the baby, and the nurse stood there for a moment with a little grin on her face before leaving them alone. "It's so good to see a happy family with their new arrival." Sakura's cheeks went pink, but the other woman didn't seem to notice. "I've seen so many widowed women having babies, and their husbands never getting to see the poor dears. A sight like this makes my heart glad," she said and left.

Sakura fidgeted awkwardly, quite unsure of what to say. "Do you think someone will tell her that we're not married?" she asked finally, her voice coming out strangely hoarse and rushed.

"She probably already knows," he said blandly. His attention fixed on the infant in Sakura's arms. She was blushing as she pushed aside the edge of her gown and let her baby nurse. Kakashi had seen her fully naked, so she really didn't think she should be so embarrassed. Kakashi didn't look away, and she wanted to call him a pervert, but didn't want to ruin this.

The blanket was pulled over her tiny head, and she wondered again if he had seen her. Taking a deep breath, she straightened her gown and gently rocked her daughter. "She has my eyes," she said softly, not letting herself look at the man sitting next to her. "Other than that, she takes after her father." Kakashi said nothing, but he didn't have his normal, lazy expression. She took that as her cue to continue. "Would you like to hold her?"

"I can't," Kakashi said, and Sakura felt her world crumble around her. She had hesitated in telling him for so long because she didn't want her baby to be unwanted. But now she was here, and Sakura couldn't imagine anyone not loving their child. Kakashi motioned down to his bandaged arms. "No heavy lifting," he explained with a grin.

Sakura laughed, but it sounded more like a sob, and he looked at her with blatant worry. He stretched his arms out and she let him take their child, more tears stinging her eyes as she watched father and daughter together for the first time. "What did you name her?" he asked as he moved the baby to his chest. He knew how to hold her better than Naruto did, but she still found herself moving his hand to better support her.

"I haven't yet," she said. She averted her eyes. "I wanted to ask you," she said quickly. She felt relieved now that she had finally said it, but also worried. They weren't pretending to be in love with each other; there were no guarantees that he would even want his child. Then another thought hit her and filled her with anxiety. What if he didn't pick up on what she was implying? What if he needed it spelled out for him? Then she remembered that she was talking to Hatake Kakashi, a genius, and she didn't need to worry. If Naruto could figure it out, surely he could.

Beside her, Kakashi had gone absolutely still. She couldn't bring herself to look at him, but from the corner of her eye she could see him slowly push back the baby's blanket and reveal her daughter's silvery-white hair. Kakashi's face was carefully blank when she finally turned back to look at him.

"You left right after I found out," she said softly. Her voice choked on her and she wiped off her tears again. "It's okay if you don't want her," she started, while inside she was shouting, _It's not okay! It's not okay!_ "I know this isn't exactly something we planned," she finished in a small voice.

Kakashi didn't answer her immediately, merely stared down at the baby in wonder, running a bandaged finger through her soft white hair. "I'm just surprised, Sakura," he said. "I've never had a 'welcome home' present like it."

Sakura laughed, but she couldn't stop crying. "You're not mad?" she asked.

He pressed his thumb against her tiny hands, marveling at the difference in their size. He didn't seem to even hear her, and she watched with a content smile as he held their daughter. There was a smile on his face, too – she could see the impression of his lips under his mask. His eye glanced up to lock with hers and they exchanged a long look that she couldn't even begin to decipher. It caused her cheeks to flush, and it didn't feel like a negative emotion at all.

"Housaku," he said.

Sakura grinned and placed her hand over his, both of them holding their baby. "It's perfect," she murmured in agreement. "Welcome home, Kakashi."

(end)

**End Notes**: Housaku (Hōsaku, if you prefer) is a Japanese word meaning "good/abundant harvest." The kanji: 豊作. I was trying to get a name that sort of went with the parents... incidently, the kid is born on April 1.


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